...an award-nominated Irish blog on Irish history and Irish politics-from today and yesterday:all 32 Counties !Updated a number of times each week . (Mirror site here)

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"1169 And Counting is a wealth of information on our Republican past and present , and demonstrates how the Irish political landscape , like that of any nation, will never be a black and white issue..."

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MacGIOLLA's GUERRILLAS .......Fifteen years ago , the leadership of the 'Official Republican Movement' (now 'The Workers' Party') stated that their armed wing , the 'Official IRA' , went out of existence .Today , the 'Official IRA' is alive and well and living mainly in Belfast and Newry . In the days when both organisations were operating in an overt way , the leadership of 'The Workers' Party' and the 'Official IRA' overlapped to a certain degree . Tomas MacGiolla , the man who led the 'Official IRA' for the last twenty-five years has always maintained the position that the 'Official IRA' went out of existence in 1972 . But the 'Official IRA' still march on , not an army fighting the British , but as a fund-collecting agency . DEREK DUNNE traces the roots of the 'Official IRA' and 'The Workers' Party' .From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine , October 1987 .

Tomas MacGiolla was born in Nenagh in 1924 and worked for the ESB between 1948 and 1977 . During the IRA Border Campaign of 1956-1962 he was interned for twenty-one months : publicly there was very little known of his military involvement during this period , if any .

It was he who led the party to the breakthrough * it achieved by getting 'TD's' elected in the November 1982 election , but the party has failed to capitalise on its initial successes ** and remains with only four elected members in Leinster House . ( */** '1169...' Comment - 'breakthrough' and 'success' ? For the personal wealth of those involved , certainly , but definitely not for any improvement in the political situation regarding Britains imposed border on this isle . A development that was to happen again.)

Prionsias De Rossa , hotly tipped as the next leader of the Workers' Party , was born in 1940 and joined the junior wing of the IRA when he was twelve . In 1957 , he joined Sinn Fein and worked to get Tom Mitchell elected to parliament ; Mitchell was a prisoner in Crumlin Road jail in Belfast at the time . De Rossa is respected within the Workers' Party , but he has gone on record with views which might be taken to be at odds with others within his organisation .......(MORE LATER).

IRA informer John Corcoran was an epileptic father of eight and a low level garda informant whose body was found in March 1985 in a field in south Kerry ; he had been shot in the head .

The Christmas issue of 'Magill' magazine revealed evidence that gardai knew in advance about plans for the murder but failed to intervene ; there was also evidence of garda reluctance to investigate the murders , including their failure to question Sean O' Callaghan while he was held in prison in the North for eight years for the murder of two members of the British 'security forces' and following his release in December 1996 .

'Magill' has now learned that last Monday , 19 January 1998 , a senior garda officer spoke to Sean O' Callaghan on Mr. O' Callaghan's mobile phone and requested an interview : Mr. O' Callaghan agreed , and it is expected that senior garda will travel to Britain next week to interview him about his role in the murder . Up until now , gardai have told 'Magill' that they were unable to contact O' Callaghan because they did not have his phone number. * (* '1169...' Comment - Note to self : in order to avoid being 'contacted' by the gardai in future , make sure they don't have your phone number !)(MORE LATER).

LIAM MELLOWS AND THE IRISH CIVIL WAR .......This is the bulk of a public lecture given at University College , Galway , by Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member and Deputy General Secretary of the 'Local Government and Public Services Union' , Phil Flynn , on December 8th 1982 , the 60th Anniversary of the Free State's execution of Liam Mellows .First published in 'IRIS' magazine , March 1983 .

" 5. Fianna : We must concentrate on youth - salvation of the country lies in this - both boys and girls . Fianna never get proper help or encouragement , yet the Fianna ideal can save the future . The reason for so many young soldiers going wrong is that they never had a proper grasp of the fundamentals : they were absorbed into the Movement and the fight - not educated into it . Hence no real convictions .

6. Food Control : Food supply will present a serious problem soon . The obstruction of roads , railways and communications will be intensified ; towns will feel it the worst . Some plan of rationing will have to be thought out and some person (a Labour man for preference) put in control . If the Republic is to win out against the Free State and the British we shall have to face the idea of people suffering many privations , but if the 'Food Control' scheme was worked out it will not be so bad . In fact , it would compel a change from the present wretched economic outlook and make them rely on their own resources .

Many things that are now looked on as necessities would have to be done without - tea , sugar , foreign flour etc - but oatmeal , oatflour , barley and other wholesome food would be used . As a matter of fact , Ireland suffered nothing (comparatively speaking) either during the Great War or our war . English people (and English women) cheerfully put up with severe deprivations and we Irish think our Cause worth putting up with anything . But do we ? Judging by the whines and grumbles , one is tempted sometimes to say 'Certainly not' " .(MORE LATER).

MacGIOLLA's GUERRILLAS . Fifteen years ago , the leadership of the 'Official Republican Movement' (now 'The Workers' Party') stated that their armed wing , the 'Official IRA' , went out of existence .Today , the 'Official IRA' is alive and well and living mainly in Belfast and Newry . In the days when both organisations were operating in an overt way , the leadership of 'The Workers' Party' and the 'Official IRA' overlapped to a certain degree . Tomas MacGiolla , the man who led the 'Official IRA' for the last twenty-five years has always maintained the position that the 'Official IRA' went out of existence in 1972 . But the 'Official IRA' still march on , not an army fighting the British , but as a fund-collecting agency . DEREK DUNNE traces the roots of the 'Official IRA' and 'The Workers' Party' .From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine , October 1987 .

Tomas MacGiolla took his organisation through some extraordinary changes in the quarter of a century that he was President : he was elected President of Sinn Fein without opposition in 1962 , and recently announced his imminent departure from the Presidency of the Workers' Party .

He presided over a party which had changed its name and its policies on a number of occasions , and has given the party a clean image * in the South at any rate . ('1169...' Comment :* .....a 'cleaner' image with some , perhaps : but never a 'clean' image.) His party came through the sixties with its sister , the IRA , and emerged into the 1980's to take seats in Leinster House .

It is arguable that it was time for Tomas MacGiolla to go , that he could bring the party no further , and that it was time for a younger man to take over . The party has always maintained that the Official IRA went out of existence in 1972 , after a ceasefire was called .......(MORE LATER).

State Justice Minister John O' Donoghue has received the garda report he ordered six months ago into claims by Sean O ' Callaghan , the IRA informer , that he murdered another IRA informer , John Corcoran , in 1985 . A spokesman said the minister received the report last week .

However , 'Magill' has learned that the gardai only contacted Sean O' Callaghan for the first time on Monday 19 January and that , at the time of going to press , he has still not been questioned by gardai . Following controversy early last year about the failure of the gardai to question Sean O' Callaghan about his role in the murder , the then opposition Fianna Fail spokesman , John O' Donoghue , promised to have the matter fully investigated on the party's return to power .

Two months ago , on December 8 (1997) , a spokesman for the minister told 'Magill' that the minister had sought a full report on the case from the garda authorities within weeks of coming into office and that a report was "...imminent....... " (MORE LATER).

LIAM MELLOWS AND THE IRISH CIVIL WAR .......This is the bulk of a public lecture given at University College , Galway , by Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member and Deputy General Secretary of the 'Local Government and Public Services Union' , Phil Flynn , on December 8th 1982 , the 60th Anniversary of the Free State's execution of Liam Mellows .First published in 'IRIS' magazine , March 1983 .

" (F) . Cardinal Mercier : As an offset to their Lordships , a fine pamphlet on the example set for Ireland by Cardinal Mercier - his acts and his words - could be written .

(G). South Africa : The danger to Ireland of the Irish allowing their work to be patterned on the example of South Africa . After the Treaty of Veer and later formation of United South Africa (all Boers still saying they were republicans at heart) the real republicans found an obstacle stood between them and the British - their own . Parallel with Ireland , Smuts and Botha , Collins and Griffith , Cathal Brugha , De Wet etc ., 'five years' fallacy of Free State Republic .

4. Courts : Except for the Supreme Court , the Republican Courts should be maintained . Nothing conveyed the proof in America of the existence of the Republic so much as the establishment of the Courts . "(MORE LATER).

THE EXTRADITION SELL-OUT .......Should it become law as intended on December 1 next , The Irish Extradition Act will adversely affect the rights of many Irish citizens in the future . COLM KEENA examines the implications of proposed legislation . From 'In Dublin' magazine , 1 October 1987 .

A spokesperson for the Anti-Extradition Campaign stated : " Many conservative Irish politicians and members of the Irish establishment dislike and are worried about the Extradition Act on its own merit . Others think it can be used to force improvements in those cases in Britain , or to get changes in the legal system in the North , that will look as if they were won through the Anglo-Irish accord .

But it looks as if the Extradition Act will come into effect on December 1 (1987) , without a 'prima facie' evidence requirement , and nothing will have changed in Britain or in the North . " [END of 'The Extradition Sell-Out'].(Tomorrow : 'MacGIOLLA's GUERRILLAS' - from 1987).

ON THE TAKE....... ! The question is no longer whether there is corruption within our political establishment but whether the political establishment is itself corrupt . From 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1998 .

Capital Gains tax was reduced from 40 per cent to 20 per cent either to benefit the rich generally - on top of the benefit they gained by the reduction in the top rate of income tax - or perhaps for the benefit of a particular individual : either way , it is a disgrace , and particularly a disgrace given the paucity of the increases in social welfare and the deferral (again) of the implementation of the benefit , such as it was .

LIAM MELLOWS AND THE IRISH CIVIL WAR .......This is the bulk of a public lecture given at University College , Galway , by Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member and Deputy General Secretary of the 'Local Government and Public Services Union' , Phil Flynn , on December 8th 1982 , the 60th Anniversary of the Free State's execution of Liam Mellows .First published in 'IRIS' magazine , March 1983 .

" (D). Dev's Work in America : The time has now come for informing the Irish people what miracles de Valera accomplished there ; the attempt to belittle his work for Eire both here and abroad must be defeated . Dealing with America is a stupendous work , and tons of data is needed , but it will be labour well worth performing .

Show how it was the Republic , and the Republic only , that gained such sympathy for us there - that no other cause would have got the slightest hearing - that de Valera changed an ignorant and either apathetic or hostile people into genuine sympathisers in two years . He made the name of Ireland respected where it was despised , and the Irish Cause an ideal where it had been regarded as a political humbug .

Fr. Peter Elias Magennis of the Irish movement in America and the attitude generally of America and Americans towards Ireland at the time of Dev's coming (was all effected by him being there) .

(E). Life of Cathal Brugha : A brief , but not a scrappy , account of above would , I think , do a lot of good . The account in 'The Bulletin' (Catholic) by Sceilg is splendid , but not detailed enough . The underlying idea should be that of 'Principle' , a word that at one time meant everything to , and conveyed everything of , the IRB . "(MORE LATER).

THE EXTRADITION SELL-OUT .......Should it become law as intended on December 1 next , The Irish Extradition Act will adversely affect the rights of many Irish citizens in the future . COLM KEENA examines the implications of proposed legislation . From 'In Dublin' magazine , 1 October 1987 .

One man who does not wish to be named says that some members of the Workers' Party might be concerned about being extradited up to the North , especially one member of the Ard Comhairle ('Ruling Body') whose signature closely resembles that of a man who has been signing cheques to do with an account in Newry which is believed to be connected with extortion and racketeering there .

At the end of July 1987 , Paddy Hill , one of the Birmingham Six , wrote a letter from HM Prison Gartree , where he is serving his sentence : he said that recent investigations into his conviction left him with no confidence of a change in the situation , and pointed out that the Dublin government has never expressed its belief in the mens' innocence .

Paddy Hill said that by reneging on their pledge not to implement the Extradition Act , Dublin was condemning "....Irish men and women to a lifetime of abuse and racial discrimination . To hand over Irish men or women to a British Court is to condemn them to a system where they will not receive a fair or impartial trial ; where they will be judged and sentenced by the British media before they even set foot inside a court . " (MORE LATER).

ON THE TAKE....... ! The question is no longer whether there is corruption within our political establishment but whether the political establishment is itself corrupt . From 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1998 .

Over the last year alone (ie 1997) the value of the estimated £8 billion worth of shares owned by private investors on the Irish Stock Exchange would have increased by about £200 million : the tax on this realisable gain alone has been cut by £40 million but , of course , the capital gain on such stock would be far greater than £40 million , taking the gain over the last several years .

And this capital gain represents only a fraction of the capital gain generated generally in the economy - it does not include , for instance , the capital gain from investment in property : therefore , the benefit to the rich by this tax reduction is probably of the order of £100 million , although Charlie McCreevy stated that the cost to the State exchequer in a single year was only £19 million ..... ! (MORE LATER).

LIAM MELLOWS AND THE IRISH CIVIL WAR .......This is the bulk of a public lecture given at University College , Galway , by Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member and Deputy General Secretary of the 'Local Government and Public Services Union' , Phil Flynn , on December 8th 1982 , the 60th Anniversary of the Free State's execution of Liam Mellows .First published in 'IRIS' magazine , March 1983 .

Letter from Liam Mellows , dated 29th August 1922 : " Continuing mine of 26th inst (Number 1) ; before doing so , however , I wish to point out that the matter of establishing a Provisional Republican Government has become imperative because of the probability of the English taking a hand sooner or later - no doubt they will continue to make use of Irishmen as long as the latter can be duped or dazzled by the Free State idea .

But even to this there will be an end , and then the British will , by using the arguments against the republicans that the Free State now use , cloud the issue greatly ; for the British to calumniate republicans and belittle their cause by besmirching them is one thing , but for Free Staters (and supposed potential republicans) to do it is another - and different , and worse thing .

Because the British will not use British arguments to cloak their actions , but Irish ones - ' out of our own mouths ' - etc . ('1169....' Comment - Westminster and those in Leinster House must be delighted that their 'pet rebels' are doing that job for them today : witness their constant attempted 'dismissal' of Irish Republicans as "dissidents" .) Therefore an object - a target - must be presented for the enemy (Free Staters or British) to hit at : otherwise it becomes a fight (apparently) between individuals . Hence the necessity of getting the Provisional Republican Government established at once ."(MORE LATER).

THE EXTRADITION SELL-OUT .......Should it become law as intended on December 1 next , The Irish Extradition Act will adversely affect the rights of many Irish citizens in the future . COLM KEENA examines the implications of proposed legislation . From 'In Dublin' magazine , 1 October 1987 .

That will require a vote in Leinster House ; The Workers' Party and the Progressive Democrats say that they will vote in favour of such an amendment . Mary McAleese stated : " The Irish government (sic) seems to have taken the line of least resistance , which is surprising * in the light of the existing situation " . (* '1169...' Comment - the only 'surprising' thing about that is that Mary McAleese should find it surprising.)

Republican spokespeople and members of the Anti-Extradition Campaign say they believe that the RUC have a list of some 300 to 600 people living in the 26 County State that they would like to extradite up to the North to 'question' ....... (MORE LATER).

ON THE TAKE....... ! The question is no longer whether there is corruption within our political establishment but whether the political establishment is itself corrupt . From 'MAGILL' magazine , February 1998 .

The second of these decisions was the refusal to permit the Moriarty Tribunal to investigate the source of all funds in the Ansbacher Accounts - these were held in a Dublin bank , where the holders of the deposits were un-named , where the monies had been routed through London , the Cayman Islands and then back to Dublin !

In this (ie the refusal) Fianna Fail was supported by its partners in government , the Progressive Democrats , and by Fine Gael : Fine Gael is now busily trying to 'rewire' its involvement in that piece of infamy . The third decision was the announcement in the budget of a reduction in the rate of capital gains tax , from 40 per cent to 20 per cent : the scale of this tax change is staggering - in one fell swoop , a government that made such a fuss about reducing the top and standard rates of income tax by two percentage points reduced the tax that most affects the rich by a full 20 per centage points !

At present , private investors on the Irish Stock Exchange own shares to an estimated value of £8 billion....... (MORE LATER).

LIAM MELLOWS AND THE IRISH CIVIL WAR .......This is the bulk of a public lecture given at University College , Galway , by Sinn Fein Ard Comhairle member and Deputy General Secretary of the 'Local Government and Public Services Union' , Phil Flynn , on December 8th 1982 , the 60th Anniversary of the Free State's execution of Liam Mellows .First published in 'IRIS' magazine , March 1983 .

" The Irish hierarchy are blood-guilty ; they were against the 1916 Easter Rising , with their denunciation of Padraig Pearse , who was the great example of Christian idealism . The hierarchy only opposed Conscription when forced to do so by the attitude of the people . That same hierarchy were against the IRA during 'the Terror' in Ireland - witness Bishop Cohalan's excommunication decree of December 1920 . That hierarchy's abandonment of principle , justice and honour by their support for the Treaty , and the danger caused to Catholicism in Ireland from their bad example : their exaltation of deceit and hypocrisy , their attempt to turn the noble aspect of Irish struggle and bring it to the level of putrid politics , their admission that religion is something to be preached about from the pulpits on Sundays , but never put into practice in the affairs of the Nation , their desertion of Ulster etc . 'Sceilg' could , I think , do the above best !

Excuse the change of writing : I had to get the above copied by someone else from a letter I am sending to Sighle , lest anything should happen to this one . I will close up now , but will continue ideas on propaganda and other things tomorrow . "Regards , L.O'M .Provisional Government :The ideas developed under 3. (A) , (B) and (C) , were continued in a further letter despatched on 29th August 1922 ....... (MORE LATER).